MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION
ROCKS AUSTRALIA

A mysterious explosion took place in the skies
above eastern Australia on Saturday, October 11,
1997. Nearly three million Australians living in a
400-mile (640-kilometer) zone stretching from
Tamworth to Batemans Bay in New South Wales
(N.S.W.) heard the explosion.

According to the ITAR-TASS report, "residents
of the eastern coast of Australia" saw "a bright,
greenish-silvery object" floating in the sky for a few
minutes before it "fell apart in sparkles that rained
on the earth."

"Australian military experts and scientists at the
New South Wales observatory are in hypothesis-making
while news media have come up with the explanation
that the enigmatic sparkling affair was space junk from
the Russian orbiting space station Mir."

However, Australia's National 24-Hour UFO Hotline
received "hundreds of calls" from witnesses ranging from
Cooma, N.S. W., 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest
of Sydney, to Bribie Island in Queensland.

According to Hotline director Ross Dowe, the blast
was estimated to have taken place "within a 15-kilometer
radius of Boggabi" in New South Wales, adding, "Local
farmers state that they never had a blast like it before,
the reverberating blasting sound remained in the area
for a good five minutes." (Many thanks to Vitor Ribeiro
for forwarding this report.)

SPHERICAL RED UFO SEEN
NEAR CARACAS, VENEZUELA

On Wednesday, October 8, 1997, two men,
Alejandro Alvarez and Rafael Urbino, spotted a spherical
red UFO "with one small white star" flying over Urbana
Terrazas del Avila, a suburb just north of Caracas, the
capital of Venezuela.

The UFO first appeared in the east, over the suburb
of Barrio de Petare, and, after making a northward turn,
"skimmed over Urb. Terrazas del Avila and flew behind
Cerro del Avila (mountain), disappearing into the clouds,"
Alvarez said.

UFO APPROACHES BRITISH
WARSHIP OFF LANCASHIRE
SHORE

On Friday, October 10, 1997, talk show host Tony
Newman of Red Rose Radio at 999MW received over
30 calls from listeners, who claimed to have seen UFOs
flying over Lancashire the previous night.

Two calls came from men identifying themselves
as sailors aboard the HMS Shetland (P298), which was
on a cruise in the Irish Sea west of Lancashire. The
men reported that "a bright light was approaching the
ship." The UFO paced the 60-meter (198-foot) vessel
for a few minutes before flying away.

Tim Matthews of the Lancashire UFO Society
(LUFOS) stated that his group had contacted the UK
Ministry of Defence, and a spokeswoman confirmed
that HMS Shetland had been offshore at that time.

Other callers to the Newman show reported
"anomalous lights and spinning discs" over Burnley,
Blackpool, Crosby, Southport and Bamber Bridge.

Currently investigating the incident are Tim
Matthews, Gloria Dixon of BUFORA, Eric Morris
and Rory Lushman. (Many thanks to John Hayes for
forwarding this report.)

TWO UFOs PHOTOGRAPHED
NEAR GUNDAGAI, AUSTRALIA

Two anomalous lights were spotted by motorists
on the Hume Highway in Australia's Victoria state,
about a 20-to-30 minute drive south of Gundagai.

According to Ross Dowe of Australia's National
24-Hour UFO Hotline, "two bright white illuminations
were sighted one to two miles (1.6 to 3.2 kilometers)
away in the eastern sky near Gundagai. The
illuminations were about 30 degrees up (above the
horizon) in angle," and were first seen in late daylight
at 6:20 p.m. (Note: Right now it's spring in Australia
and the other countries of the southern hemisphere--J.T.)

Witnesses "took a few photos" of the lights, which
retained the same brightness after dusk fell.

At 7 p.m., "a large flame" shot out of the stern of
one UFO. "The larger of the two turned out to be a
dark brown or black triangular object while the other
was a small ball with a halo around it. The triangular
object suddenly shot off to the north" at a speed "much
faster" than any jet interceptor. The spherical UFO
hovered "for a few minutes" and then "sped off and
dropped to the south, all without any sound." (Credit
goes to Ross Dowe of Australia's National 24-Hour
UFO Hotline for this report. Many thanks to Errol
Bruce-Knapp for forwarding it.)

UFO SEEN HOVERING IN
CLOUDS OVER MONTREAL

On Sunday, October 12, 1997, at 1 a.m., two
residents of Montreal in Quebec, Canada spotted
some unusual lights at 10,000 feet (3,030 meters)
in the overcast clouds.

"We noticed an unusual light in the cloud
cover," Francois W. reported. "At first, it seemed
to be a reflection of lights that were crossing the
clouds. The lights were white. We counted five
of them--a central light and four smaller lights
surrounding it. The lights on the outside rim were
rotating."

Francois and his companion kept the UFO in
view for several minutes. "I am truly certain that
this was an OVNI (French acronym for UFO)."
(Email Interview)

ANOTHER UFO SIGHTING AT
OHIO'S EAST FORK LAKE

East Fork Lake, about 15 miles east of
Cincinnati, the site of a UFO incident last month,
reported another sighting this week.

On Tuesday, October 14, 1997, at 8 p.m.,
three people on Alexander Lane in Afton, Ohio,
located on Highway 133 about 10 miles east of
Cincinnati, spotted a UFO that "hovered in the
southwest sky about 65 degrees above the horizon."

The witnesses--Susan, age 36; her daughter,
Chrissy, age 19; and Mike--described the UFO as
"a large, brilliant white light" that descended
towards East Fork Lake.

This was the trio's second encounter this
year with a UFO. They saw a similar object in
the woods near the lake on September 24.

According to Kenneth Young of Tri-States
Advocates of Scientific Knowledge, one of the
trio grabbed a videocamera and attempted to
shoot an image of the UFO. "The videotape shows
fleeting glimpses of an object which appears for
a few seconds at a time, as the camera is shaking
due to its handheld operation."

The witnesses also reported seeing four to eight
jet planes circling the UFO, which "dropped from
sight behind a treeline."

This was the third UFO incident in Ohio since the
beginning of October, Young reported.

On October 8, 1997, in Hillsboro (population 6,356),
a city on Highway 50 north of Cincinnati, a resident
"spotted a large triangular-shaped craft surrounded by
approximately 13 jets. As the jets continued to fly
around the object, it suddenly rose straight up and
disappeared from sight."

On October 10, 1997, in Middletown, Ohio
(population 43,719), a city on Interstate Highway 75
approximately 35 miles north of Cincinnati, residents
spied "a large, bright white illumination" similar to
the East Fork Lake UFO, which flew away to the
southwest. (Many thanks to Kenneth Young, public
relations director of T.A.S.K. for these reports.)

MULTIPLE UFOs SIGHTED IN
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

On Sunday, October 12, 1997, at 1:45 p.m.,
Ross M. was at work in his hometown of Santa
Maria, California (population 68,000), located on
Highway 101 approximately 187 miles northwest
of Los Angeles.

"I looked up and saw the jets," Ross reported.
"Then I watched something higher than the jets.
At first the objects looked like two stars. I thought
it strange to be able to see them during the day.
Then I noticed they were going west. They were
moving rather slow. They traveled together for a
short time. Then one of the objects turned south,
and the other continued west."

"As I watched the one (that) traveled south,
it joined with yet another object. The new object
seemed to be flashing brilliantly. They both contined
south until I lost sight of them. This happened at
1:45 p.m." (Many thanks to Tim Hagemeister of
NACOMM for this report.)

UFO SQUADRON SPOTTED
OVER THE GREAT SALT LAKE

On Wednesday, October 15, 1997, at 9 p.m.,
Ryan R. spotted a formation of strange lights flying
over Utah's Great Salt Lake.

"I spotted 14 lights in the sky above the Great
Salt Lake around the Clearfield-Sunset area," he
reported. "At first I thought they were airplanes.
The more I looked at them, I could tell they were not
airplanes. I'm just wondering if anyone else saw
these strange lights." (Email Interview)

Clearfield (population 17,982) and its northern
neighbor Sunset (population 5,733) are just off
Interstate Highway 15, about 27 miles north of
Salt Lake City.

NASA CHANGES SURVEYOR'S
LOW-ALTITUDE ORBIT

On Sunday, October 12, 1997, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California raised
the lowest point of the Mars Global Surveyor's orbit,
effectively putting a temporary end to low-altitude
photography of the Red Planet.

Surveyor's 35-hour orbit around Mars was slated
to fly at an altitude of 75 miles (121 kilometers). The
spacecraft will now be "doing most of its closest
passes over the planet" at 105 miles (170 kilometers).

According to NASA press release 97-232, NASA
decided to raise the orbit after "only one of the space-
craft's two solar panels, which had not fully deployed,
exhibited unexpected motion during a recent dip into
the upper Martian atmosphere."

The release quoted Surveyor project manager
Glenn E. Cunningham as saying, "We're taking a
hiatus from aerobraking for the next few weeks
while we study data to try to model and understand
the deflection of the solar panel that never fully deployed
and latched after launch." (USENET Item)

STILL NO RADIO CONTACT
WITH PATHFINDER

On Wednesday, October 15, 1997, the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena attempted to send a series of
commands to the Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars.

The commands were uploaded via the Deep Space
Network's 100-kilowatt transmitter in Madrid, Spain.
The site has two 26-meter steerable antennae and a
steerable dish antenna 64 meters in diameter.

"In both cases, they had not received a 'transmitter
on' signal on the ground, indicating that the commands
had been received by the spacecraft."

The last successful contact with Pathfinder took
place on October 7. A JPL spokesman said, "We fear
the signal is falling on deaf ears." (Many thanks to
the gang at In Search Of for this report.)

(Editor's Comment: Aren't twelve days of "lost contact"
with Pathfinder newsworthy enough for a mention in
your local newspaper? I haven't yet seen it in any of
the half-dozen New England papers I read daily.)

CASSINI DEPARTS FOR SATURN

On Wednesday, October 15, 1997, at 4:13 a.m., the
Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying the two-story Cassini
spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The "flawless" launch sent Cassini and its onboard
probe, Huygens, on the first leg of a 2.2-billion-mile
(3.5-billion-kilometer) trip to Saturn. "Once there,
Cassini will spend four years exploring Saturn, its
rings and its icy moons, especially the biggest--Titan...
Cassini is the biggest, most complex interplanetary
probe and the most expensive, too--$3.4 billion for the
whole mission." (See the Boston, Mass. Herald for
October 16, 1997, page 4.)

Cassini is now on its way to Venus for the
first stretch of its marathon four-year voyage.

from the UFO Files...1957: THE VILLAS BOAS CASE

October 15 was the fortieth anniversary of the
abduction of Antonio Villas Boas, then aged 23, from
his farm on the outskirts of Sao Francisco de Sales,
Minas Gerais state, Brazil.

It began in early October 1957 when Antonio and
his brother were awakened at 3 a.m. by an intense
white light streaming through their bedroom window.

Then, the night of October 14, while they were
plowing their field, they "saw a ball of red light
hovering 300 feet (92 meters) above the field." As
Antonio approached the UFO, "it evaded him at high
speed. Villas Boas chased it across the field. He
gave up after 20 attempts" to reach the object.

The same UFO appeared again the following
night, October 15, 1957. "Villas Boas lost his
enthusiasm of the previous night to catch up with
the object and considered making a getaway in
his tractor. He was not successful."

"The object landed some 40 feet (12 meters)
in front of him on three metallic legs; it was an
egg-shaped craft with a rotating dome."

Fleeing the tractor, Antonio was chased and
caught "by five entities" who "carried him aboard.
The entities wore grey tight-fitting suits and helmets
which revealed only their small blue eyes. From
the helmets, tubes ran into their clothes at the
back and neck."

Confined in a small compartment on the UFO,
Antonio was forcibly stripped of his clothes, and a
blood sample was taken from him. For an hour,
he sat in the room, as pipes wafted a sour-smelling
"smoke" which "made him feel sick."

Suddenly, the door zipped open, and there
stood an alien humanoid female with "blonde hair,
pale skin, large blue slanted eyes, reduced lips,
nose, ears and high flat cheekbones that gave the
impression of a sharply pointed chin." He reported,
"She was looking at me all the while as if she
wanted something from me." Which turned out to
be the mother of all understatements.

Following two sexual events, the alien female
departed, and the other occupants took a sperm
sample from Antonio. He was then dropped from
the UFO in a deserted field not far from Sao Francisco
de Sales. (Editor's Comment: They could have just
as easily dropped him off in his birthday suit in the
middle of the Praca Tiradentes in Ouro Preto!)

"Later, medical examination revealed a scar
where the blood sample had been taken and what
may have been radioactive burning on parts of
his skin."

Antonio Villas Boas was the first abductee of
modern times to report a sexual event as part of
his experience. (See WORLD ATLAS OF UFOs,
by John Spencer, Smithmark Publishers, Inc.,
New York City, 1992, pages 181-184.)

That's it for this week. Join us next Sunday for
more saucer news from all over the world. Till then,
here's wishing you all a safe and happy week from
"the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP."

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post
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